Cases

Although we specialize in working within Canada, EFS e-Forensic Services Inc. has been called upon to complete work all across North America. Our clients include:

  • Corporations,
  • Regulatory Agencies,
  • Law Firms,
  • Law Enforcement Agencies,
  • Accounting Firms,
  • Insurance Firms,
  • Private Individuals.

Below is a sample of computer investigation cases recently worked on. They are described in a generic fashion to provide some insight into our work without breaching client confidentiality.

References available upon request.

Regulatory

EFS assists a regulatory agency on an ongoing basis with over-site of its members, providing in-house training, technical advice, forensic preservation, analysis, secure storage and transport of sensitive data.

EFS assisted with a search by a regulatory agency and were able to adjust when the estimated 12 computers became 47 hard disks. Imaging was completed in two days; well within the client’s timeline.

A client requested EFS examine a GPS system from a commercial boat which had been submerged in salt water. The boat was used in a criminal act and investigators wondered if the GPS system could contain data that would further the investigation. The GPS unit was removed from the submerged boat, rinsed with fresh water and sent to the EFS lab. Once received, it was dismantled and dried out over several days. Once dried it was put back together, reconnected to a power source and powered up successfully. The data extracted to a portable drive, then plotted onto a map and provided to investigators.

Corporate

The status of a computer data artifact, critical to the client’s case, was subject of two conflicting expert reports.  An EFS consultant was able to dissect the conflicting reports, itemize the errors that lead to the conflict and establish the true context of the data, resolving the matter in the clients favor.

EFS consultants assisted a client with complying with electronic discovery. EFS used remote forensic capabilities to collect from 2 international sites at substantial savings to the client over on-site attendance. The targeted collection gathered 4TB of custodian data, over 4 sites from PC’s, network shares and e-mail archives and was completed successfully with minimal disruption to client operations.

EFS, available on short notice, completed an electronic discovery collection on behalf of a client responding to a regulatory agency’s request for documents. A targeted collection of 2TB of custodian data from PCs, network shares and e-mail archives was promptly completed.

EFS consultants provided client advice that led to determining an ex-employee and a current employee were colluding to compete with the client. EFS assisted with affidavits and execution of an Anton Piller order at three sites and subsequent analysis.

EFS assisted an industry association with their due diligence efforts in responding to allegations against an association officer and unrelated criminal charges. Digital media was forensically imaged and secured preventing its loss or tampering while events unfolded.

EFS has assisted a corporation with the preservation of servers, workstations and Blackberry cell phones assisting with transitional issues during its takeover of a competitor.

EFS assisted a law firm with identifying historical USB activity to link a suspect’s computer to a USB camera device which was previously used on that system.  Suspect had previously denied ever plugging in the camera to the system.

EFS assisted an employer with analysis of an employee’s PC who was accused of sexual harassment in the workplace.  Computer artifacts recovered included many inappropriate images, chat conversations and videos which were put into a comprehensive written report detailing a timeline of events which illustrated the excessive amount of time the employee spent on the computer on these inappropriate non-work related activities.

Government

EFS consultant assisted enforcement agency with installation of software on a computer to allow covert monitoring of the user, assisting in resolving the matter at hand successfully.

EFS assisted a School Board with imaging 22 computers after hours, completed analysis for inappropriate use, and provided detailed reports and expert witness services at an arbitration hearing that lead to a successful outcome for the client.

EFS staff assisted an educational institute with forensic imaging and review of digital evidence in the investigation of a staff member’s conduct with students.

EFS was asked to review forensic images of a hard drive collected by another forensic firm on behalf of a government client in a high profile case in litigation. The other firm had concluded data was missing from the drive and likely purposefully deleted prior to imaging. EFS established that the problem was not due to nefarious activity by the data owner, but was the result of errors during the imaging of the hard drive by the other forensic firm.

EFS assisted an agency with the technical requirements to capture data from a laptop computer. It was decided a laptop computer would be given to a suspect, via an agent, in order capture data that might further the investigation. Once a court order was obtained, EFS prepared a laptop computer to capture data and covertly transmit that data to the agency. After setup of the laptop, it was provided to the suspect who put it to use. The result was a successful conclusion to the investigation and a guilty plea entered before the court.